I like to think of myself as having a nose for good video games. I can smell them from a 30-foot radius, and I often buy on impulse when I think I've caught the scent. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (hereafter referred to as G: DAMM) is one such title. I had read and heard very little about it before my purchase, but it only took me a few minutes of play to see that my money was well spent.

G:DAMM is a fighter that pits Godzilla, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and several other monsters against each other in two to four monster brawls. All of these brawls take place in various real-life cities across the world, ranging from Tokyo to San Francisco, London to Seattle. There are also a couple of fantasy maps, such as the Alien Mothership and Monster Island.

The basic premise of any fighting game is to knock out your opponent before he knocks you out. In G:DAMM, this can be accomplished by using a variety of melee attacks, energy beam attacks, or by picking up a nearby building and tossing it at your opponent's head. Monsters can dish out and take a lot of damage—just like in the movies—and most monsters have very different abilities. Sometimes the peripheral enemies such as infantry soldiers, aliens, or even rogue monsters may interfere to mix it up a little. Playing this game is a very fun experience overall and you will find yourself forgetting about the few problems the game has.

visuals

G: DAMM has mixed visuals that turn out to be excellent overall. The good part is that the monsters are absolutely beautiful, and they look exactly like their movie counterparts. No, I'm not talking about the computer-generated pansy Godzilla. I'm referring to the real Godzilla and Pals, the men in the rubber suits who ran around destroying Tokyo. The monsters' movements give you a real sensation of controlling a huge beast and the animations are nice and fluid, with a few quirks when it comes to Rodan. When monsters shoot energy beams, the illumination effects are quite impressive as well.

However, the environments are not quite as impressive. They’re good, but not as good as the monsters themselves, and the difference in graphical quality can take away from the experience a little. With that being said, the entertainment of watching a building topple over after you have tossed a giant porcupine monster into it, or seeing a poor factory crumble as you land on it from a devastating uppercut, is still excellent.

The camera system could use a little work. It zooms in as monsters get closer to each other, and zooms out as they get further apart. However, the camera has a maximum zoom out, so monsters are stuck to only staying a few city blocks apart. This becomes more limiting as you battle with more monsters. Also, when you get some power-ups—like Rage—the camera cuts into a close-up of your character. This is all well and good, but afterwards the camera cuts to an entirely new angle that is very disorienting. For the most part, however, the camera does its job and you don't realize it is there.

audio

The audio is nothing special in this game. There's nothing particularly memorable about the music, but it isn’t horrible either—it just stays in the background and out of the way. The various roars and screams of the monsters are nice, and the energy beam sound effects are great and really make you want to shout, "OH NO! GODZILLA IS ATTACKING THE CITY!" The various pounding sounds as you walk, or get kicked, around the arenas are also enjoyable.

gameplay

The game play really shines in G:DAMM. As I said before, you really feel like you are Godzilla. The fighting controls are quite simple and easy to get used to. Pushing in any direction plus a button will perform a different attack. Melee attacks beat grab attacks, grab attacks beat blocking, and blocking beats melee attacks. The energy beam attacks beat everything, but you’ll have to be good to use them. You have a meter of energy and depending on how long you hold down the Z button, you’ll deliver a more powerful attack. This sounds simple, but in execution, it gets complex. You have to charge it enough to do some real damage, but if you charge it too long, your opponent may get out of range or hurl a building at you, or maybe even hit you with an energy beam of their own. It’s like a Mexican standoff with atomic heat breath. Occasionally, the military will attempt to intervene, but they are no match for Godzilla! You will laugh at their silly attempts to stop you (until they bring out the freeze ray).

Adding to the excitement are the power-ups. There are power-ups that will quickly charge your energy beam, give you more health, or even summon Mothra to help you out. If you can get a hold of the Rage power-up, you can unleash your special A+X attack that features some of the monsters’ signature attacks from their many movies. While playing through single player, you can also find Atari icons that will unlock classic pictures of Godzilla in the gallery.

Overall, the game play here is really solid and well-paced. You really feel like these battles could’ve been taken directly from a movie, and you get a great sense of interactivity.

multiplayer

Multi-player is my favorite part of this game, but there are a couple of major problems with it. The biggest one is that there is no AI. If you want to play a four-monster melee, you will have to have three friends over. AI is supplied in two player versus if you have the need, and of course in Adventure mode (which consists of battling each monster one by one). But you will not be able to set up 3 or 4 player battles unless you have three or four players at the stick.

Another major problem is the lack of options. For Melee mode, you can set how long the match lasts and how many wins are required to finish, but that’s it. You get points for each KO and Heavy Hit, but you cannot set the game up to, for instance, give every person three lives with the last man standing as the winner. Imagine Super Smash Bros. Melee without stock battle.

Another problem I had with Multi-player was character selection. There are only eleven monsters to choose from in this game (most of which must be unlocked), and some of them are very similar. For instance, there is a Godzilla 90’s and a Godzilla 2000 that are essentially the same character, but with different looks! There is also a Mecha-Godzilla, but he is a very different character. The same cannot be said for King Ghidorah and Mecha-King Ghidorah, though, as they are just one move from being the same character. Even with these problems, the multi-player is still some of the best fun to be had so far on the Cube. There’s nothing like picking up your friend and throwing him at another one of your friends, all while Mothra and the army helplessly try to kill you.

overall

This game is a lot like the Super Monkey Balls or Blast Corps of the world. It is one of those great games that tend to go unnoticed by most people. At the very least, it deserves a rent, but if you love Godzilla, this is a must-have title. I really hope G: DAMM sells enough to warrant a sequel, so they can fix the few mistakes they made with this one. Bottom Line: If you want to play the best monster game since Rampage, pick this up.